January 26, 1850: Provincial Lunatic Asylum opens its doors to its first 211 patients, transferred from the Temporary Asylum, which was housed in a former jail on King Street.

1851: The Toronto architecture firm of Cumberland and Ridout is engaged to design a wall with lodges and an entrance gate around the asylum.

1853-1875: Dr. Joseph Workman is the asylum’s Medical Superintendent.

1866-1869: Newly constructed east and west wings add to main asylum building to try to ease severe overcrowding.

1871-1905: The name of the asylum is now ‘Asylum for the Insane, Toronto’.

1888-1889: Following the government’s sale of 23 acres of the site for development, the east and west walls are moved and rebuilt using original materials. The site is now 27 acres, the size it is today.

1889: Two new brick workshop buildings (extant) are constructed for use by staff and patients.

1891: A new ‘Asylum for the Insane, Mimico’ opens as a branch of the Queen Street asylum.

The 1900s

1905-1911: Dr. Charles Kirk Clarke, Medical Superintendent of the now named ‘Hospital for the Insane, Toronto’ recommends selling and relocating the overcrowded, poorly maintained facility, without success.

1919: A new facility in Whitby opens to replace the one on Queen Street; however, both continue to be utilized.

1919: Now named the ‘Ontario Hospital, Toronto’.

1954: Construction of a new Queen Street Administration Building begins.

1956: The Queen Street Administration Building is complete.

1964: The Ministry of Health announces plans to replace the Queen Street asylum structures with new buildings on the same site.

1978: The former Superintendent’s Residence (later Nurses’ Residence) is demolished.

1979: The Joseph Workman Auditorium opens.

1979: The infamous ‘999 Queen Street’ address changes to 1001 in an effort to symbolically disconnect the new centre from its stigmatized past.

1979: The ‘Asylum for the Insane, Mimico’, renamed as the ‘Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital’ in 1966, is closed and partly re-merges with Queen Street.

1997: The Health Services Restructuring Commission (HSRC) releases its report, which includes changes to addictions and mental health care.

1998: The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is formed from the merger of the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the Addiction Research Foundation, and the Donwood Institute.

2000 to Present

1999-2001: CAMH’s founding President and CEO, Dr. Paul Garfinkel initiates comprehensive ‘visioning’ workshop sessions and consultations with hundreds of key stakeholders. Study recommends the creation of a central hub for CAMH at the Queen Street site.

2001: The Vision and Master Plan outline the transformation of the Queen Street site into an ‘urban village’ – a mix of CAMH and non-CAMH uses with parks and new through streets fully integrated with the larger community.

July 4, 2008: Infrastructure Ontario announces a Request-for-Quote (RFQ) for companies to submit their qualifications to design, build, finance, and maintain the next phase – Phase 1B – of CAMH’s Redevelopment Project.

May 2009: A Phase 1A building is officially named, The McCain Building after Michael McCain and his family in recognition of their support of the CAMH Redevelopment Project; the first ever building to be named after a donor.

June 15, 2009: Following a competitive process for the first non-CAMH building on-site, CAMH accepts a letter of intent from Forum/Verdiroc to lease CAMH property to develop and operate a mixed-use building, including affordable housing and street-level retail.

September 25, 2009: Today, the official inauguration of the Paul E. Garfinkel Park takes place. This park is the northeast block of the site that, earlier this spring, CAMH handed over to the City of Toronto as a public park.

October 29, 2009: Decommissioning ceremony for the 1956 Administration Building.

December 18, 2009: Carillion Health Solutions is awarded the contract to design, build, finance, and maintain the Phase 1B buildings.

February 24, 2010: Demolition of the 1956 Administration Building, to make way for Phase 1B construction, begins.

September 2010: Forum/Verdiroc begins construction on the first non-CAMH building, located at Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue. For more information, go to New Neighbours in the Urban Village.

September 17, 2010: Unveiling ceremony of nine memorial plaques installed along the CAMH historic wall in honour of asylum patients whose labour was used to build the wall.

October 7, 2010: CAMH launches a street naming contest to name ‘New Street’, one of five new public streets being created as part of the Redevelopment Project to connect the site with the surrounding community.

June 22, 2011: CAMH receives street naming approvals from the City of Toronto to apply the name Stokes Street to New Street, in honour of Professor Aldwyn B. Stokes; and to rename Freedom Street to Lower Ossington Avenue.

September 8, 2011:Shoppers Drug Mart​ has agreed to be an anchor tenant in the new non-CAMH building - the Ossington-Queen Street Rental Apartments.

April 23, 2012: A mosaic art project to be displayed in the new Intergenerational Wellness Centre becomes a community collaboration.

June 21, 2012: Outdoor Grand Opening Celebration marks the official opening of the three new CAMH buildings of Phase 1B of the Redevelopment Project. CAMH also hosts the dedication of the cornerstone of the new Bell Gateway Building, along with an unveiling of the return of the 1846 Cornerstone Plaques from the original 'Provincial Lunatic Asylum.

September 2012: CAMH physicians, collectively known as The Associates, are honoured for their contributions to CAMH as the Utilities and Parking Building at 101 Stokes Street is named the Doctors Association Building.

November 9 2012: Opening of Affordable Housing Building on CAMH property at 100 Lower Ossington

2013: The silver cornerstone plaques from the 1846 'Provincial Lunatic Asylum,' long thought to be lost, are returned to CAMH and hung from the Legal Hearing Room.

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March, 2015: The first step in the procurement process for the third phase of the redevelopment project, Phase 1C, to build two new hospital buildings right on Queen Street West.